Keep on learning

“You learn something new every day”. That old saying has been around as long as kudzu, but it’s one hundred percent true. Now granted, what you learn may not be earth-shattering, and it may not change your life, but you can pretty much expect that in the course of an ordinary day, if you are conscious and alert, there will be new information coming your way that you did not possess the day before. Well, you might say, nothing new here, and now with the world wide web and all the innovations of the last few decades, there is probably more information out there than we actually want or need. True, I would say, but that “old saying” has been around long before the internet ever intruded, so that just means what was true then is even truer now. You just have to pay more attention to it. It’s a battle of the quality of information versus the quantity, but if you are alive and functioning, it means you have an excellent opportunity to be better informed tonight when you go to bed than you were this morning when you woke up. That’s just fundamental, and we take it for granted. But, it’s pretty exciting when you stop and think about it, right? Okay, I can now hear the sound of crickets chirping and nature yawning, so I will provide an account of a recent event to illustrate and substantiate my case. My sister-in-law, who many of you know, and my brother, a retired infantry Colonel, spend much of the year here in Emanuel County. She is a lively, inquisitive and personable delight who left Massachusetts to marry this Army officer and move a household from post to post just about every five or six years while raising a family. On the way, she assembled a gallery of amazing lifetime memories and collected friends like some folks collect coffee cups. Now, she has a pantry full. This past weekend two of her college buddies, Hillary and Jen, visited Swainsboro. With a full itinerary, they struck out and rendezvoused with two more friends in other parts of the state. Upon their return, they commented on the high points of the adventure and posed a question concerning some farm animals observed along the way, “We kept seeing donkeys and cows together. Are they good companions?” Now, I was born and raised here. I have been on many farms with cows and donkeys and never noticed any special relationship, but these two ladies from Wisconsin and Rhode Island had caught this good ‘ol Georgia boy flatfooted like a deer in the headlights with a question about cows and donkeys. I did my best to dodge the question and change the subject, but I was backed into a corner. Meanwhile, Hillary googled it and yes, there is such a thing as “guardian donkeys” and a symbiotic relationship with cows. Who knew? I did learn that there is some debate among the experts about how effective this arrangement is, but I guess donkeys are like us, some take their job seriously, some don’t. Some are good companions, and some maybe not that great. The bottom line is this, I learned something I didn’t know about raising cows here in Georgia from these two girls from up North. So, there you go. It happens every day. I’m a little bit smarter than I was yesterday, and I guess if cows and donkeys can figure out a way to get along, there might be hope for all the rest of us. And remember, despite the date on your driver’s license, you’re never too old to learn.